Proto-Indo-Iranian language
Encyclopedia
Proto-Indo-Iranian is the reconstructed
proto-language
of the Indo-Iranian
branch of Indo-European. Its speakers, the hypothetical Proto-Indo-Iranians, are assumed to have lived in the late 3rd millennium BC
, and are usually connected with the early Andronovo archaeological horizon.
Proto-Indo-Iranian was a Satem language, likely removed less than a millennium from the late Proto-Indo-European language
, and in turn removed less than a millennium from the Vedic Sanskrit
of the Rigveda
. It is the ancestor of the Indo-Aryan languages
, the Iranian languages
, the Dardic languages
and the Nuristani languages
.
In addition to the vowels, *H, and *r̥ could function as the syllabic core.
is the hypothetical ancestor to the Iranian languages, including Avestan and Old Persian):
). Grassmann's law
, Bartholomae's law
, and the Ruki sound law
were also complete in Proto-Indo-Iranian.
A fuller list of some of the hypothesized sound changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Indo-Iranian follows:
is the loss of the voiced sibilant *z, among those to Iranian
is the de-aspiration of the PIE voiced aspirates.
Linguistic reconstruction
Linguistic reconstruction is the practice of establishing the features of the unattested ancestor of one or more given languages. There are two kinds of reconstruction. Internal reconstruction uses irregularities in a single language to make inferences about an earlier stage of that language...
proto-language
Proto-language
A proto-language in the tree model of historical linguistics is the common ancestor of the languages that form a language family. Occasionally, the German term Ursprache is used instead.Often the proto-language is not known directly...
of the Indo-Iranian
Indo-Iranian languages
The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It consists of three language groups: the Indo-Aryan, Iranian and Nuristani...
branch of Indo-European. Its speakers, the hypothetical Proto-Indo-Iranians, are assumed to have lived in the late 3rd millennium BC
3rd millennium BC
The 3rd millennium BC spans the Early to Middle Bronze Age.It represents a period of time in which imperialism, or the desire to conquer, grew to prominence, in the city states of the Middle East, but also throughout Eurasia, with Indo-European expansion to Anatolia, Europe and Central Asia. The...
, and are usually connected with the early Andronovo archaeological horizon.
Proto-Indo-Iranian was a Satem language, likely removed less than a millennium from the late Proto-Indo-European language
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
, and in turn removed less than a millennium from the Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan language. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian. It is closely related to Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian language...
of the Rigveda
Rigveda
The Rigveda is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns...
. It is the ancestor of the Indo-Aryan languages
Indo-Aryan languages
The Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...
, the Iranian languages
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages which in turn is a subgroup of Indo-European language family. They have been and are spoken by Iranian peoples....
, the Dardic languages
Dardic languages
The Dardic languages are a sub-group of the Indo-Aryan languages spoken in northern Pakistan, eastern Afghanistan, and the Indian region of Jammu and Kashmir...
and the Nuristani languages
Nuristani languages
The Nuristani languages are one of the three groups within the Indo-Iranian language family, alongside the much larger Indo-Aryan and Iranian groups. They are spoken primarily in eastern Afghanistan...
.
Descriptive phonology
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Coronal Coronal consonant Coronal consonants are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Only the coronal consonants can be divided into apical , laminal , domed , or subapical , as well as a few rarer orientations, because only the front of the tongue has such... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Laryngeal Laryngeal theory The laryngeal theory is a generally accepted theory of historical linguistics which proposes the existence of one, or a set of three , consonant sounds termed "laryngeals" that appear in most current reconstructions of the Proto-Indo-European language... |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dental/ alveolar |
post- alveolar |
first | second | |||||
| Plosive | voiceless |
} | } | } | } | } | ||
| voiced | } | } | } | } | } | |||
| aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
} | } | } | } | } | |||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
voiceless |
} | } | } | ||||
| voiced | (}) | (}) | ||||||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
} | } | ||||||
| Liquid Liquid Liquid is one of the three classical states of matter . Like a gas, a liquid is able to flow and take the shape of a container. Some liquids resist compression, while others can be compressed. Unlike a gas, a liquid does not disperse to fill every space of a container, and maintains a fairly... |
} | } } | ||||||
| Semivowel Semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:... |
} | } | ||||||
| High | *i *ī *u *ū |
|---|---|
| Low | *a *ā |
In addition to the vowels, *H, and *r̥ could function as the syllabic core.
Two palatal series
Proto-Indo-Iranian is hypothesized to contain two series of stops or affricates in the palatal to postalveolar region. The following table shows the most common reflexes and origins of the two series (Proto-IranianProto-Iranian
Proto-Iranian, is the reconstructed proto-language of the Iranian languages branch of Indo-European language family, and as such, the ancestor of the Iranian languages such as Persian, Sogdian, Zazaki, Mazandarani, Kurdish and others...
is the hypothetical ancestor to the Iranian languages, including Avestan and Old Persian):
| PIE | PII | Sanskrit | Proto-Iranian | Avestan | Old Persian | Nuristani |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *k̂ | *ĉ | ś ([ɕ]) | *ts | s | θ | ċ ([ts]) / š |
| *ĝ | *ĵ | j ([ɟ]) | *dz | z | d | j ([dz]) / z |
| *ĝʰ | *ĵʰ | h ([ɦ]) | ||||
| *k/kʷ | *č | c | *č | č | č | č |
| *g/gʷ | *ǰ | j ([ɟ]) | *ǰ | ǰ | ǰ | ǰ / ž |
| *gʰ/gʷʰ | *ǰʰ | h ([ɦ]) |
Laryngeal
Proto-Indo-European is usually hypothesized to have three to four laryngeal consonants, each of which could occur in either syllabic or non-syllabic position. In Proto-Indo-Iranian, the laryngeals merged together as one phoneme /*H/. Beekes suggests that some instances of this /*H/ survived into Avestan as unwritten glottal stops.Accent
Like Proto-Indo-European and Vedic Sanskrit (and also Avestan, though it was not written down), Proto-Indo-Iranian had a pitch accent, indicated by an acute accent over the accented vowel.Historical phonology
The most distinctive phonological change separating Proto-Indo-Iranian from Proto-Indo-European is the collapse of the ablauting vowels *e, *o, *a into a single vowel, Proto-Indo-Iranian *a (but see Brugmann's lawBrugmann's law
Brugmann's law, named for Karl Brugmann, states that Proto-Indo-European in non-final syllables became *ā in open syllables in Indo-Iranian. Everywhere else the outcome was *ǎ, the same as the reflexes of PIE *e and *a...
). Grassmann's law
Grassmann's Law
Grassmann's law, named after its discoverer Hermann Grassmann, is a dissimilatory phonological process in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit which states that if an aspirated consonant is followed by another aspirated consonant in the next syllable, the first one loses the aspiration...
, Bartholomae's law
Bartholomae's law
Bartholomae's law is an early Indo-European sound law affecting the Indo-Iranian family. It states that in a cluster of two or more obstruents , any one of which is a voiced aspirated stop anywhere in the sequence, the whole cluster becomes voiced and aspirated...
, and the Ruki sound law
Ruki sound law
Ruki refers to a sound change in Balto-Slavic, Albanian, Armenian, and Indo-Iranian, wherein an original phoneme changed into after the consonants , , and the semi-vowels , , or:...
were also complete in Proto-Indo-Iranian.
A fuller list of some of the hypothesized sound changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Indo-Iranian follows:
- The Satem shift, consisting of two sets of related changes. The PIE palatals *k̂ *ĝ *ĝʰ are fronted or affricated, eventually resulting in PII *ĉ, *ĵ, *ĵʰ, while the PIE labiovelars *kʷ *gʷ *gʷʰ merge with the velars *k *g *gʰ.
PIE PII Sanskrit Avestan Polish Latin *k̂m̥tóm *ĉatám śatám satəm sto centum "hundred" *ĝónu *ĵā́nu jā́nu zānu kolano genu "knee" *ĝʰéi-mn̥ *ĵʰimá- himá- zima- zima hiems "winter" / "snow" *kʷó- *ká- ká- kō co, kto quis "who?, what?" *gʷou- *gau- go gau- wół bos, bovis "cow" *gʷʰormó- *gʰarmá- gharmá- garəma- żar formus "warmth, heat" - The PIE syllabic liquids *l̥, *r̥ merge as *r̥.
PIE PII Sanskrit Avestan Polish Latin *wĺ̥kʷo- *wŕ̥ka- *vŕ̥ka- vəhrka- wilk lupus "wolf"
- The PIE syllabic nasals *m̥ *n̥ merge with *a.
PIE PII Sanskrit Avestan Latin *k̂m̥tóm *ĉatám śatám satəm centum "hundred" *mn̥tó- *matá matá- mens, mentis "thinking"
- Bartholomae's lawBartholomae's lawBartholomae's law is an early Indo-European sound law affecting the Indo-Iranian family. It states that in a cluster of two or more obstruents , any one of which is a voiced aspirated stop anywhere in the sequence, the whole cluster becomes voiced and aspirated...
: an aspirate immediately followed by a voiceless consonant becomes voiced stop + voiced aspirate. In addition, dʰ + t > dzdʰ.PIE PII Sanskrit Avestan *ubʰto- *ubdʰa- ubdaēna "weaved" / "made of weaved material" *urdʰto- *urdzdʰa- vr̥ddʰá- vrzda- "complete/mature" *augʰ-tá- *augdʰá- *óhate *augda "he said" - The RukiRuki sound lawRuki refers to a sound change in Balto-Slavic, Albanian, Armenian, and Indo-Iranian, wherein an original phoneme changed into after the consonants , , and the semi-vowels , , or:...
rule: *s is retracted to *š when immediately following *r *r̥ *u *k or *i. Its allophone *z likewise becomes *ž.PIE PII Sanskrit Avestan *wers- *warš- varṣman- "summit" *pr̥sto- *pr̥šta- pr̥ṣṭhá- paršta "back" / "backbone" *ǵeus- *ĵauš- joṣati zaošō "taste" *kʷsep- *kšap- (< *ksep) kṣāp xšap "darkness" *wis- *wiš- viṣa- viša- "poison" *nisdo- *nižda- nīḍa- "nest" - Before a dental occlusive, *ĉ becomes *š and *ĵ becomes *ž. *ĵʰ also becomes *ž, with aspiration of the occlusive.
PIE pre-PII PII Sanskrit Avestan *h₂ok̂tṓ *oĉtṓ) *aštā́ aṣṭaú ašta "eight" *h₃mr̥ĝt- *mr̥ĵd- *mr̥žd- mr̥ḍīká- mərəžḍīka "wiped away" / "pardon" *uĝʰtó- *uĵʰtó- *uždʰá- ūḍhá- "carried"
- The sequence *ĉs was simplified to *šš.
PIE pre-PII PII Sanskrit Avestan Latin *h₂ék̂s- *áĉs- *ášš- ákṣa- aši- axis "shoulder" / "axle" - The "second palatalization" or "law of palatals": *k *g *gʰ develop palatal allophones *č *ǰ *ǰʰ before the front vowels *i, *e.
| PIE | pre-PII | PII | Sanskrit | Avestan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *kʷe | *ke | *ča | ca | ča | "and" |
| *gʷíh₃weti | *gíh₃weti | *ǰī́wati | jī́vati | jvaiti | "lives" |
| *gʷʰénti | *gʰénti | *ǰʰánti | hánti | jainti | "slays" |
- Brugmann's lawBrugmann's lawBrugmann's law, named for Karl Brugmann, states that Proto-Indo-European in non-final syllables became *ā in open syllables in Indo-Iranian. Everywhere else the outcome was *ǎ, the same as the reflexes of PIE *e and *a...
: *o in an open syllable lengthens to *ō.PIE pre-PII PII Sanskrit Avestan Latin *deh₃tór-m *deh₃tṓr-m *dātā́ram dātā́ram dātāram dator "giver" (acc. sg.) - The vowels *e *o merge with *a. Similarly, *ē, *ō merge with *ā. This has the effect of giving full phonemic status to the second palatal series *č *ǰ *ǰʰ.
PIE PII Sanskrit Avestan *kʷe *ča (< *če) ca ča "and" *gʷʰormó- *gʰarmá- gharmá- garəma- "heat" *bʰréh₂tēr *bʰrā́tār bhrā́tā brātā "brother" *wōkʷs *wākš vāk vāxš "voice"
- In certain positions, laryngeals were vocalized to *i. This preceded the second palatalization.
- Following a consonant, and preceding a consonant cluster
PIE PII Sanskrit Avestan *ph₂trei *pitrai pitre piθrai "father" (dative singular)
- Following a consonant, and preceding a consonant cluster
- Following a consonant and word-final
PIE PII Sanskrit Avestan *-medʰh₂ *-madʰi -mahi -madi (1st person plural middle ending) - The Indo-European laryngeals all merged into one phoneme *H, which may have been a glottal stop. This was probably contemporary with the merging of *e and *o with *a.
PIE PII Sanskrit Avestan *ph₂tér *pHtā́ pitā́ ptā "father" (nominative singular) - According to Lubotsky's Law, *H disappeared when followed by a voiced nonaspirated stop and another consonant:
PIE PII Sanskrit Avestan *bʰeh₂g- *bʰag- ( < *bʰaHg- ) bʰag- baxša "distribute"
Subsequent sound changes
Among the sound changes from Proto-Indo-Iranian to Indo-AryanIndo-Aryan languages
The Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...
is the loss of the voiced sibilant *z, among those to Iranian
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages which in turn is a subgroup of Indo-European language family. They have been and are spoken by Iranian peoples....
is the de-aspiration of the PIE voiced aspirates.
| Proto-Indo-Iranian | Old Iranian (OP, Av Avestan language Avestan is an East Iranian language known only from its use as the language of Zoroastrian scripture, i.e. the Avesta, from which it derives its name... ) |
Old Indic/Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan language. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian. It is closely related to Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian language... |
*aĉwa- ("horse") | Av, OP aspa | aśva Asva Asva is a village in Laimjala Parish, Saare County, on the eastern part of Saaremaa Island, Estonia.... |
*bʰag- | OP baj- (bāji; "tribute") | bhag- (bhaga Bhaga Sanskrit is a term for "lord, patron", but also for "wealth, prosperity". The cognate term in Avestan and Old Persian is , of uncertain meaning but used in a sense in which "lord, patron" might also apply. A Slavic cognate is "god"... ) |
*bʰrātr- ("brother") | OP brātar | bhrātṛ | *bʰūmī ("earth", "land") | OP būmi | bhūmī Bhumi Bhumi can mean:* Bhūmi, Hindu goddess of the earth**also, earth as a classical element in Hindu tradition* Bhumi , the ten stages a Bodhisattva advances through in the path to become a Buddha... |
*martya ("mortal, "man") | OP martya | martya | *māsa ("moon") | OP māha | māsa | *wāsara ("early") | OP vāhara ("spring") | vāsara ("morning") | *arta ("truth") | Av aša Asa -People:* Aṣa , Paris-born Nigerian singer-songwriter* Asa of Judah , son of Abijam, King of Judah* Asa Dotzler , Mozilla contributor and blogger*Asa Kasher , Israeli philosopher and linguist-Places:... , OP arta |
ṛta Rta In the Vedic religion, Ṛta is the principle of natural order which regulates and coordinates the operation of the universe and everything within it. In the hymns of the Vedas, Ṛta is described as that which is ultimately responsible for the proper functioning of the natural, moral and sacrificial... |
*draugʰ- ("falsehood") | Av druj, OP draug- | druh- | *sauma "pressed (juice)" | Av haoma Haoma Haoma is the Avestan language name of a plant and its divinity, both of which play a role in Zoroastrian doctrine and in later Persian culture and mythology. The Middle Persian form of the name is hōm, which continues to be the name in Modern Persian and other living Iranian languages.Sacred haoma... |
soma Soma Soma , or Haoma , from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-, was a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the subsequent Vedic and greater Persian cultures. It is frequently mentioned in the Rigveda, whose Soma Mandala contains 114 hymns, many praising its energizing qualities... |
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